


Double Trouble

by yahootoldyou



Series: Stranger Things [3]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Gen, Side Story, padmé raising her babies, rex being the best uncle ever
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-16
Updated: 2017-05-25
Packaged: 2018-10-19 12:56:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10640301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yahootoldyou/pseuds/yahootoldyou
Summary: leia and luke are growing up behind the scenes... here are some of their adventures.





	1. Chapter 1

“Mama?” Three year old Luke Skywalker asks as Padmé addresses a room full of soldiers. It goes deathly quiet except for the hiccups in the boy’s breathing as he approaches his mother, arms up and ready for a hug. She smiles down at the boy, ignoring the soldiers around them for just a moment as she lifts him into her arms. 

“What is it, Luke?” She asks and the boy buries his head in her shirt, not willing to show all the grown people around him that he’s crying over something mean that his sister did. 

She shushes her boy kindly, “It’s okay, Luke, tell Mama what’s wrong.” He hiccups a couple more times before responding, pulling his head up briefly. 

“It’s _Leia_ , Mama, she’s a great big meanie,” he says and a few soldiers laugh lowly, not wanting to upset the little guy, but being amused by the toddler’s behavior. Luke scowls at them for a moment before laying his head against her shoulder. She turns, ready to start the briefing again when another small, but incredibly loud voice interrupts her yet again. This time, a few soldiers snicker outright, too amused to keep it in any longer. 

“ _He’s lying, Mom!_ Anything that he’s says is a great big lie!” The young general shoves forward, soldiers who have already grown fond of the girl smiling down at her. Her language isn’t perfect, but it’s distinctly trying to be like her mother’s. They all have no doubts that the girl will want a future in leadership, whether it be senator in a time of peace or general in the time of war. 

A flustered Rex eventually follows her children, his cheeks pinking with embarrassment at having interrupted a meeting that was not his own. Even if the children had also interrupted his many times as well. 

“I’m _so_ sorry, Padmé,” he says as he scoops a fighting Leia up.

“Let me go, Uncle Rex! _Let me go!_ ” She’s not crying, she never would in front of her troops, but her eyes are wet and her cheeks red with frustration. 

“It’s okay, Rex,” Padmé assures him and he smiles, extending his other arm to take Luke from his mother. Luke goes willingly, even as Leia sticks her tongue out at him childishly. He takes the children back to their home and Padmé turns back to her troops with a small grin. 

“Now then, should we continue?” A few more laughs occur before they do. 

 

 

“Mom?” Luke sits down on the couch next to her, the young boy’s blonde hair in a great deal of disorder. She smiles at the toddler even as he yawns with exhaustion. He’s almost four now, having stopped calling her ‘Mama’ a few months back when his sister managed to tease it out of him. She had fallen asleep hours ago, content to hear Rex’s story and goodnight and be done with it, but Luke usually waited until Padmé returned so he could say goodnight. 

“Yes, Luke?” She asks and her boy puts his head on her lap, curling around the small blue blanket he had gotten the week after he was born and snuggling in. 

“Will you tell me a bedtime story?” He asks shyly, knowing that bedtime stories were usually an Uncle Rex thing and not a Mom thing, but she only smiles down at him from above, again wrapping him in love and affection. She may not be force sensitive, but to a force sensitive child, she is a beacon of light and love, a safe house for his childhood fears. He doesn’t know how to think like that yet, but someday, when he is old and gray and maybe has children of his own, he will remember how it felt to have Padmé Amidala as his mother. He will know how to love. 

“Of course I will, sweetheart. Which do you want to hear?” She knows the answer before he says it, his cheeks pinking a bit with shame. These stories are his favorite, even as they fill his mother with the strangest feeling. He doesn’t yet know why he can feel how she feels at all time, why he is so sensitive to things like that, but he’s happy that it allows him to make his mother feel better when she is sad, so he decides that it must be a good thing. 

“One about Commander Kenobi and General Tano?” He asks and she smiles sadly before nodding to the boy. He snuggles in further so she can begin. 

“There once was a boy named Obi-Wan Kenobi and he had a friend named Luminara. Obi-Wan and Luminara were great friends growing up…” 

 

 

“Mom, do we have a dad?” Leia asks one morning at the breakfast table. Rex stills in the kitchen, the eggs in the pan beginning to crisp a bit around the edges. Padmé looks up in shock, knowing the question was coming someday, just not quite sure she’s ready to deal with it yet. Luckily, her valiant knight of a son steps in to defend against his sister’s undying curiosity. 

“Of course we do, Leia, you know Admiral Drenha told us all about how babies were made that one day… He was all like ‘Ah little humans, the anat’- what’s the word again?” He asks and his sister scoffs slightly before answering.

“He said a-nat-omee,” she sounds out the syllables, almost getting the word right. 

“Yeah that,” Luke confirms before continuing, “he basically said all humans have a mom and a dad. So, _obviously_ , we have to have a dad.” Obviously. Padmé feels her stomach lurch a bit. 

“Is Rex our Dad?” Luke asks suddenly, joining his twin in the gang-up against their mother. Rex chokes audibly in the kitchen. 

“No, babies, Rex is your uncle, you know that,” she assures them, answering their easiest question first. Padmé makes a mental note to discuss human child raising with Admiral Drenha as her children collect their thoughts, she needs to tell him to stop explaining such things to her much too young children, even as she knows the mon calamari means no harm. 

“So… If we have a dad and it’s _not_ Uncle Rex… Then who is it?” Leia asks her mother again, her son joining her side this time with a decisive nod. They want to know about the other half of their parentage… That’s normal right? They have a right to know. Still, Padmé hesitates to tell them anything out of fear. 

“I knew your father,” Rex says before she does. She’s grateful that he has taken the pressure off of her for a brief second, even as she knows her children will hound her again in a moment. For now, their uncle has their undivided attention. 

“He was a General like General Tano in the Grand Army of the Republic and he was an outstanding man,” he begins, the children’s mouths hanging open at the reveal that their Dad knew the famous and beloved General Tano. 

“Did he know Commander Kenobi too?” Luke asks and Rex nods with a smile.

“Oh yes, he knew both of them very well,” Rex says and Luke and Leia turn to each other with awe in their smiles. It’s dangerous, what Rex has just done, beginning their image of their father with a hero, but she knows that it had to be done. They are too young to be burdened by the truth. 

“General Skywalker was a great Jedi, one of the best of his time. He was brave and strong, courageous and always rushing in to save the day even if the Jedi Council didn’t want him to. He was an amazing leader and extremely affective in his field. What would’ve surprised people though, was how much he cared for his friends. He was always there when they needed him and would never leave a man behind in the field unless he had absolutely no choice,” Rex says and the children gobble up the tale of General Skywalker, adding him to their list of favorite characters. Padmé winces with the knowledge that her children will now ask her for stories regarding their father, the man who had betrayed all of them to be the Emperor’s guard dog. Yes, Anakin Skywalker had been all of the things Rex is saying at one point, but what did it matter if what he was currently was the antithesis of the hero Rex spoke of. 

Anakin had been a hero. _Her hero._ But he was a hero no more. 

She begins to listen again, “he married your mother when he was still a student to General Tano, but it was a while yet until your favorite Commander entered the picture.” She purposely zones out again hen she hears her story of her marriage with Anakin even being mentioned. It is a part of her life she has repressed strongly, a part of her that still aches with the wound of betrayal that her husband had inflicted upon her. She is brought back from her thoughts what must be minutes later as her son waves in her face.

“Mom, Mom, _Mom!_ ” He squeals.

“Yes?” She answers, still in a daze. 

“What was his name, Mom? Uncle Rex said you had to tell us yourself,” Luke says excitedly and at this point, it would be cruel to not tell her children what she could about their father. She smiles, even as sorrow threatens to overcome her. 

_“His name was Anakin.”_

 

 

“Do you _have_ to go, Mom?” Luke asks as Padmé stands outside of the ship. Mon Mothma stands there, a hand holding each of her children in place as she boards the ship. 

“I do, Luke. I’m sorry I will be gone for so long,” she answers, feeling a pang of deep sorrow at the downcast expression her son sends her way. 

“And Uncle Rex?” Leia asks, the man emerging from the ship to join her as they ready to embark on their mission to save Obi-Wan. 

“We have to go rescue Commander Kenobi, Leia, you know this,” he says and she nods, a single tear escaping to fall upon her cheeks. Padmé rushes forward at that and embraces her normally so strong child. 

“My sweet girl, do _not_ be afraid. We have to go, but we will be back soon,” she says, kissing Leia on the forehead. She turns and does the same to her son, who’s tears are much more free then his sister’s. They smile sadly, a reflection of the ones she has always given them and she wonders how much else they have picked up from her. Rex places a hand on her shoulder as if to say, _‘only the best… only the best.’_ She smiles gratefully and they ascend the ramp, ready to go rescue the boy they have let rot in the hands of Darth Vader for far too long. 

They strap into their seats and take off, Padmé glancing down at where her children stand with her dear friend, knowing that they will be safe even if she doesn’t make it back from her mission. 

Even if Anakin kills her on sight for leaving him all those years ago. 

She shakes her head, knowing that thinking that way will be no help to her when she finally arrives back on Coruscant for the first time in so long. She takes a deep breath, reaching out to grasp Rex’s hand firmly in her own. Throughout everything, he has been her most trusted companion. She can only hope at least one of them make it back to Luke and Leia if all else fails. She takes the green lightsaber Yoda had given her all those years ago in hopes of convincing her to let him train Luke and Leia out of the bag to look at it. She doesn’t know who it used to belong to, but she has a feeling it or he was important, so she puts it back gently, ready to provide Obi-Wan with a weapon when the time is right. 

Rex squeezes her hand in reassurance.

“Set course for Coruscant?” He asks and she nods decisively. 

_There’s no going back now._


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the events in between epilogue parts one and two for Luke and Leia

Luke and Leia aren’t little anymore. 

_(They haven’t been in a long time.)_

 

 

They don’t ask her for bedtime stories, they don’t thirst for knowledge in the way they used to.

They don’t look at the rebels around them in awe and wonder and they have the grim lines of war painted on their skin just like everyone else. 

They don’t make Obi-Wan or Rex pick them up so they can make eye contact with the bigger people, the adults. 

They don’t smile as widely as they once did. 

But more than anything else, the thing they especially no longer do, is ask about their father.

_(They know better.)_

_(They know the truth.)_

 

 

Two heads make their way towards her in the crowd and Padmé feels her eyes mist with proud, terribly sad tears. 

Her babies are not babies anymore, no matter how terrible and wonderful the thought is. 

She no longer has to worry about them wandering off into odd territories, no longer has to worry about them being in unsafe territories. 

They know how to handle themselves, Luke with his father’s old lightsaber and Leia with a blaster, they’re both incredibly skilled. They know hand to hand combat, they’re both skilled pilots. 

She doesn’t worry about them getting onto a speeder and crashing it.

She worries about them discovering their heritage and liking it, of meeting the man who once could have been their dad.

_(She worries about them dying.)_

_(She worries about them not coming home to her the same way they left like their father had.)_

 

 

They come at once, erupting from the crowd of rebels and throwing themselves into her arms. She holds them close to her chest, breathing in the very scent of her children as she marvels at the fact that they are safe in her arms. 

That they have once again survived in a universe where their own father hunts for their heads and their souls. Her heart pounds inside of her chest, so loud she feels it may be breaking, but the twins catch her with a new phrase, keeping her failing legs from collapsing and holding her soul in a vice. 

_(They always were her saviors.)_

 

 

“Mom, you have to meet our friend, she has something the rebels need to hear,” Leia says, dragging Padmé along with Luke hot on their trail. They move her through the crowd at Obi-Wan level speed, their lessons and field time really working to their favor. 

_(They are a team. The Team. The one to destroy the old one.)_

 

 

“Who is this?” She asks when they reach a young woman with ragged clothes and jagged brown hair pulled sloppily out of her brown eyes. They have a lack of warmth to them, they don’t draw Padmé in the way Leia’s do, the way she knows hers do for others. 

The girl winces when she sees Padmé look her up and down, her face scrunching up in displeasure. 

_(Padmé instantly wants to help.)_

_(Democracy doesn’t work like that, though.)_

 

 

They turn the young Jyn Erso and her valuable information away, Obi-Wan too far away in the universe to sway Alliance leaders, and Bail and Padmé’s pleas falling on deaf ears. Rex stands in a corner, jaw clenching, eyes narrowed as he stares at a seemingly offensive wall. 

Luke and Leia stand rigid, their forms stone compared to the angry motion of the other individuals in the room.

_(For a moment, Padmé is almost reminded of their father.)_

 

 

“We have to go, Mom, Jyn needs us!” Leia begs as her mother watches with sad eyes. Her children are the most important thing to her, they will not go, they cannot go. 

“I’m sorry, Leia, but I can’t lose you. The answer is no.”

The look in her daughters eyes, the sheer betrayal and accusation in them, almost makes Padmé want to vomit where she stands. 

_(She cannot lose them too.)_

 

 

The phone call with Obi-Wan is long and upsetting, the younger man banging his head against the console of his ship as he groans. They call it the Death Star, that much Jyn had told them, that much they knew. According to the young woman, it’s a planet killer, an abomination that will be able to wipe out entire populations.

The accusation is in his eyes too. 

_(She’s beginning to think she’s lost her touch.)_

 

 

She’s alone in the room when Bail and Rex enter the room. They’re leaving, going to Alderaan to see if they can track down an old ally. 

She knows they mean Yoda. 

It almost sickens her when she realizes she doesn’t truly want the troll found, doesn’t want his impression to harm her children the way it had their father. 

She lets them go with a sad wave and a twist in her gut. 

_(She is shocked when half the base is gone after their talk.)_

 

 

“What’s going on?” She asks Mon Mothma and the woman winces terribly, her face full of sorrow. 

“Jyn Erso and a group of rebels attacked the information center on Scarif. We’ve just sent in reinforcements,” she answers and Padmé feels the air leave her lungs.

“This is it,” she breathes and Mon nods grimly. 

“We’ve just entered another war.” 

_(She’s got a bad feeling about this.)_

 

 

Four days after the twins turn nineteen, four days after the nineteenth Empire Day is celebrated, she finds her daughter’s room empty when she comes to wake her up in the morning. 

She asks her son if he knows what’s happened and where she’s gone.

He looks at her sadly and shakes his head. 

_(He knows, of course he does, Luke and Leia don’t keep secrets from each other.)_

_(She wonders when they started keeping them from her.)_

 

 

Luke and Leia aren’t little anymore.   
_(They haven’t been in a long time.)_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i love this universe. when I finish with it, I will miss it dearly.


End file.
